Steven Universe and the court of Blue Diamond.
Chapter Five
The stairway seemed to go on forever and ever and ever as they made their way down it, Steven really couldn't see much as Holly was was in the lead of them and Holly was really tall so it was hard to see around her. Holly was also moving pretty fast down the stairway as well, she wasn't running exactly but she was really focused on getting down the steps as fast as she could and Steven could barely keep up with her with his shorter legs.
Holly also had her whip out, ready to strike at any bad guys that might want to hurt them. Steven didn't have to look back at Pearl to know that she had her glaive out as well. Steven knew that he was safe with them, that they would always keep him safe and he was always going to be glad for that but at the same time he wanted to be able to see what was going on as well.
Eventually, the stairs came to an end and three of them found themselves on a large walkway that seemed to be suspended in thin air and which lead to a large green circular platform which was floating as well. Below them was a lack of crystal clear water which splashed against the sheer black stone walls every now and again. Steven tried to peek over the edge but Pearl urged him onward as Holly Blue moved on to the platform.
Holly cupped her chin with her hand and then nodded to herself as she glanced around the platform, Steven couldn't really see anything. The platform was completely bare and aside from the walkway which lead back to the stairs they had climbed the platform itself was something of a dead end, there were no other openings in the walls expect the one they had come through, the rest of the walls were smooth as smooth could be.
But Holly didn't seem at all concerned with that, she looked as though she had been expecting this. Another moment passed, and then Holly claped her hands together, her eyes tightly shut with a smile on her face. "Let us move on, the mechanisms all still seem to be intact at any rate. Pearl, access the system and get us moving. Checking the primary labs should be our first move I think."
Pearl said nothing, which wasn't that unususal if Steven was going to be honest. Pearl could talk but she often chose not too, and when she did talk it was often only one or two words unless it was something that needed more words to be explained. Or unless she was scared, he still remembered the look on her face as she had tried to get those weird floating pyramid things to stop attacking Holly Blue.
Pearl silently made her way into the middle of the platform and stood there silently for a moment, as still as a statue. Then, she slowly lifted her hands up to her gem and a soft blue light began to come from within her gemstone. A projection of a screen came out of her gem then and Pearl reached up her hand to bring her fingers over the screen, Steven watched as Pearl worked.
What looked like schematics of the building they were standing in flashed across the screen in a matter of seconds, then a weird symbol that Steven had never seen before which showed a white triangle on top, with a yellow and pink triangle on the bottom. But before he could ask any questions about it, they symbol had disappeared just as quickly schematics had done.
Finally, another schematic came on to the screen and Steven could tell that it was a schematic of the room they standing in right now. Pearl's gemstone glowed again, on this time the colour was an emerald green. A low thrum of a sound filled the room and something began to lift from the water below, it was another walkway which connected itself between the wall and the platform.
Then, a chime filled the room. A low grumble of stone sliding against stone and a hatch the same size as the hatch they had come through opened in the wall. Holly clapped her hands once again as Pearl's gem stopped glowing and the screen disappered into nothingness. "Excellent, let us get going then. My Prince, be sure to stay well behind me. We have no idea what might be waiting for us inside of there, Pearl, continue to keep an eye on the defences and make sure that the Prince is kept safe.!
Pearl said nothing but she did give a nod and them seemed to have satisfied Holly Blue as she started to make her way across the walkway, Steven followed after her and Pearl followed after him. There were no stairs on the otherside of the hatch, just a much longer corridor that stretched on further into the darkness. Steven wondered how long it had been since anyone had ever been down here.
But with each step they took further into the darkness, Steven noticed that it seemed to be getting lighter and lighter. Soon, the passageway was almost as bright as the boardwalk of Beach City was on a winter's morning. It was warmer than that in the air though, but it was a dry sort of heat and kind of uncomfortable as well. It was weird, considering how could it had been outside.
As they kept walking, the passageway began to widen out before them. Enough so that Steven thought that every single person in all of Beach City could probably walk side by side and still not spill over the sides of the walkway. At the end of the passageway, Steven cast a thought to how long they had been walking for, two large doors stood waiting for them, a glowling panel waited at the side of them.
Holly turned back to look at Pearl who nodded and quickly placed her glave back in her gem before she walked past Steven and Holly and place her hand on the panel. For a few moments, nothing happened. And then, the doors swung open.
The room on the otherside was like something out of the House of Residing Evil series, it was large and cicular with large glass tubes mounted on the walls which were large enough to hold a person, on the other side of the room from the doors they walked through was a smaller door that was about as tall as Holly was. One of the glass tanks was shattered, thin yellow glass was scarted on the floor and some sort of liquid was scattered on the floor. Steven wondered if they would find diaries and notes of the people that worked here, lamenting how they had played with forces they couldn't understand and they had brought their downfall on themselves.
Holly Blue walked over to one of the tubes that wasn't broken, the same yellow liquid that was splashed on the floor was also in the tube. Holly rested her hand on the glass and let out a hum. "Some of this equipment might still be useable for us, if the main computer system is still working then we might be able to get some of the data and make proper use of it."
Holly cast a glance around the room and nodded. "Doesn't seem like any of the staff managed to avoid being affected by the blast, they would've shown themselves by now if so. I say we should make our way to the computer core. Pearl, opens the next access hatch." Pearl nodded and walked over to the door and began to interact with the access panel.
As Pearl worked, a growling sound made Steven jump and cry out and Holly and Pearl turned to him, ready to strike out with their weapons but nothing was attacking Steven and Steven himself had no idea where the noise had come from, he glanced around rapidly before the noise started up again. After a moment and with a flushed face, Steven rubbed the back of his head and spoke. "Heh, sorry. I kinda forget to had something to eat this morning."
Holly Blue looked shocked for a moment and turned on Pearl, glaring at her and Steven knew she was going to start yelling at Pearl if he didn't intervene. "It wasn't Pearl's fault! I wasn't hungry earlier and she was busy trying to fix my TV after Lapis-I mean after I broke my TV by...looking at it too hard." He said with a nervous grin.
Holly Blue stared at him for a moment before she nodded. "As you say my Prince, sadly I am afraid that we can not turn back just yet. Will you be able to hold on till we are finished here?"
"No problem, I packed some snacks." Steven smiled as he unshrugged his cheesebuger backpack and unziped it, hunting around for the snacks he had packed earlier. Holly turned back to the tube on the wall while Pearl worked on the door.
Another growl filled the air and Steven smiled as he patted his belly. "Don't worry little buddy, you'll be filled soon enough." He reached into the backpack and pulled out a bag of Chaaaaps, an apple. a bag of cheese poofs and a carton of apple juice. He had just pulled open the bag of chaps when the growling started again, he must be a lot hungrier than he thought, it was really loud.
Almost like his belly was right by his ear.
It wasn't his belly, was it?
Steven turned then and his eyesight was filled with something horrible, the thing couldn't be much bigger than he was. That did not make it any less terrifying, it was spiky all over and it was blood red and where it's eyes should have been were only small pits filled with flames and a small red gemstone was dead center in it's chest and when it's clawed hands came down and clasped on his shoulders, Steven screamed.
The thin blue line of Holly's whip wrapped around the thing's middle and it was riped away from him, Holly let out a cry of rage as she used the whip to throw the monster into the wall. The creature roared in anger and rage before it jumped on to the table and lunged at Holly and before Steven could cry out or reach into his backpack for something he could use to help her, Holly spun and brought her leg up, meeting the creature's lunge with a kick to the face.
Pearl had abandoned the door and had summoned back her glaive and ran over to join Holly in the fight, before either of them could do anything however the creature screamed in the faces before leaping on the table once again and from there it lept up to the ceiling, sinking it's claws into it like it was made of mash potatos and scurried across it, bursting through a vent while dodging being snared by Holly's whip and scurring away.
Holly frowned and crossed her arms. "Well then, this location is compromised and not safe. Pearl, I want you to take the Prince back to the warp and get him back to the temple. I'll wait here and when you get back we can countinue on with the mission."
Pearl glanced down at him for a moment before she glanced back at Holly and down at him again, Steven could tell she was trying to figure out what to do. After a few moments of that Pearl held out her hand for him to take, as familar a gesture he had ever known. She had done it a thousand times before, every single time they crossed a road together.
Steven had never rejected it before, he jumped away from Pearl and ran over to Holly. "No! Sapphire said that I had to be here! She said that me being here was the only way that this would turn out okay!"
Holly was about to speak but Pearl beat her to it, her voice was soft as ever but there was a hint of something else in there as well. "Steven, Sapphire can only see possiblities. Not the future, no one can see THE future. And while the best possibility might hinge on you being here, that doesn't mean it is the only possibility that could wind up happening. You could be hurt if you come with us."
"And you can both be hurt if I go!" Steven cried. "I'm not going! If I go back, then we all go back."
Holly and Pearl glanced at one another.
"Stop pouting, it is unbecoming of a prince." Holly said as she carried him, very unpouting, under her arm back through the passageway back towards the platform, Pearl following silently behind them.
Steven said nothing.
As Pearl was interacting with the hologram again in order to get the access hatch back to the surface open, Holly placed him down on the platform. Steven crossed his arms and stared at the walls before he let out a sigh and glanced back up at Holly. "What about what we came here for? And what about that thing that attacked us, what was it?"
Holly was quiet before she knelt down and placed her hand on his shoulder. "My prince, there are things that you must know but your mother made me promise that I would only tell you when you we're ready. Since the great and wise Blue Diamond is...gone. it is up to us to determine when you are ready for such knowledge. And at the moment, I do not think you are ready."
"All I shall say for the moment, is that you are not to concern yourself with this facility anymore. Pearl and I shall return for the data and to clear out this..,infestation at a later date, with Sapphire and Lazuli." Holly patted the top of his head before turning back to look at Pearl. "Pearl, any chance you have the access hatch open yet or am I expecting too much?"
"I'm almost there, thankfully opening it from the inside is not quite so hard as opening it from the outside. Just give me one moment, I want to be sure that we do not trip any nasty surprises on our way out." As Pearl talked Steven sat down at the edge of the platform and stared down at the water below, a frown on his face. He didn't understand any of this, anything at all it seemed like most times.
He wished his mom was here, she was meant to be the best gem out of all of them. She would know what to tell him.
Something warm and wet fell on his shoulder and when Steven put his hand on his shoulder and pulled it back, his hand was wet. Steven looked up and very quickly found that he wished he hadn't.
It was the same creature as before, but it had found friends. Four of them, all identical except for the placement of their gemstones. One had a gemstone on it's shoulder, another on it's knee, another over it's eye and another that he couldn't see so he had to guess it was on the palm of the creature which he couldn't see do to it's claws being embeded in the ceiling. All five of them let out a shriek and dropped down on to the platform.
Holly was fast, scooping him up and putting him near Pearl even as the creatures had only just gotten to their feet, Holly snapped her whip at any that got too close to them. Pearl swung her glaive down at the one with the gem where it's eyeball should have been before it caught it with it's claws and refused to let go, Pearl being unable to pull her glaive free from the monster's hold.
Steven knew he had to help, he dug through his backpack and pulled out a squeeze bottle of water and prayed it at the eyeball one's face. It let go and Pearl was quick to sieze the opening, bringing her long axe down on the monster. The creature just managed to duck out of the way but only just. The four identical monsters that were surrounding Holly were getting frustrated, none of them able to get close to her while she was armed with her electro-whip so they had to fall back as well.
The five monsters snarled and barked at one another and Steven realised they were speaking to one another and was about to point that out to Holly and Pearl when all five of them grabbed each other's arms, all of them disappearing into flashes of light, melding into one huge mass of light before the mass began to take a familar looking shape.
Said shape looked like exactly like one of the monsters that had been just been standing there, only much bigger and each of the indivdual gems were scatter over the body in the same places they had been on the five smaller monsters. When it roared in their faces, it was deafening. It raised it's huge arms and brought them down, Holly dodged to the left and Pearl scooped him up before dodging to the right.
The monster turned on him and Pearl and took a single step towards them before Holly's whip wrapped around it's wrist, crackling with electricity. The monster glanced down at the whip, flexed it's wrist and snapped it like it was dental floss. Pearl lunched herself as the monster, her glaive coming up and down on to the monster's hide but the loud clanging sound made it clear that it hadn't made much of an effect.
So then. It was down to him.
Steven reached into his cheeseburger backpack one last time, wrapped his hand around the first thing he felt and picked it up and tossed it at the monster.
Master of Ceremonies Bear Bear bounced off the monster's hide like nothing. The monster kicked at Steven in retaliation and Steven just managed to stumble back out of the way, but also sadly he managed to stumble off the edge of the platform, plummeting to the water below.
He just heard Pearl and Holly screaming out his name before he was submerged in water, he was turned upside down and it was so dark and cold and he had no idea which way was up and he tried to scream but then water flooded into his lungs.
Moments later, or perhaps hundreds of hours he couldn't tell, a pair of arms wrapped around his waste and he found himself looking into a face that had Holly Blue and Pearl's eyes. The world turned dark again seconds later.
When he woke up again, he was laying in the middle of the platform with Pearl leaning over him. Holly was standing near the edge of the platform, looking down into the water. "What happened?"
"It doesn't matter Steven, we handled it." Pearl spoke and Holly turned to look at him, the look on her face was...Steven had never seen anything like it before. For a moment he thought it was hate and disgust but then it turned into concern and love and then the next second it was the worst sadness he had ever seen in his entire life.
"Let's just go." Holly marched over to the stairs and Pearl nodded, picking Steven up and following her.
It was a long and quiet walk back to the Warp Pad.
When they got back to the temple, Sapphire was waiting for them. Holly didn't say anything to her, all she did was scoff and turn on her heels and walked into the temple, the door shuddering open and then slamming shut behind her.
Pearl put him down on the sofa, got a heater out of the cupboard under the stairs and set herself the take of making him some hot chocolate and getting him a blanket as well. Steven glanced at Sapphire when she sat down next to him on the sofa. "You said me being there was needed for the best possible outcome, you said I needed to keep the harmony."
"I did, and the best possible outcome isn't always happy. Trust me, this could've been much worse. And sometimes, you can keep the harmony even without meaning too." Sapphire looked at him, and gave him one of those stares that he knew was looking right through him which was quite an accomplishment considering that her hair was always covering her eyes. "Do you also remember that I said we love you very much, and you should always remember that."
Steven nodded.
"Good, cause if you hadn't you wouldn't be here right now. Holly will be fine, she just needs some time alone."
"Okay, but what happened? It's not the first time I've been in danger, it's not the first time she's had to save me. What's so different about this time?"
Sapphire was quiet, more so than usual. Then she spoke. "You're hot chocolate's going to be too warm, remember to blow on it." That was all the small blue gem had for him, she jumped off of the sofa and made her way over to the temple door, humming a song that he knew Sapphire liked under her breath as she went.
And when the hot chocolate did come, it was too hot. Just as Sapphire said it would.
End of Chapter Five.
Another chapter done and dusted, I hope you liked it.
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With a lot of love,
DiscordantSymphony